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August 4, 2007

Imitation

are doing a terrific imitation of the Yankees, the team they have long maligned for doing precisely what the Red Sox have done since the end of last season [signing free agents]. ...

By acquiring Eric Gagne last week, the Red Sox forfeited their right to criticize or whine about the Yankees, their longtime archenemy and nemesis, the team their chief executive once called the Evil Empire. This year, there's a new show in town, and the Red Sox have cast themselves as the Yankees. As such, they are giving an award-winning performance ...

Sadly, this tired meme -- that the Red Sox have become exactly like the Yankees -- gets as much play in Boston as it does anywhere else.

For some reason, these writers and announcers (and fans) think that the Red Sox spending a lot of money for players for a couple of years is the equivalent of the Yankees spending a lot of money for players for several decades.

Chass rattles off some of Boston's deals. One of his examples, the deadline trade of 2004 (which sent Nomar out of town) lowered the team's payroll and thus contradicts his premise. Murray bangs out more than 1,000 words on the subject before closing with this apparently unimportant tidbit:

"... the Red Sox current payroll is $148.6 million, the Yankees' $215.2 million."

So Chass's info has the Yankees' payroll $66.6 million more than the Red Sox's. (66.6 - Evil Empire, anyone?)

Meaning you could take the Red Sox's current payroll, add the salaries of

12 comments:

But since when is spending money to improve the team a bad thing? Isn't that what everyone wants their team's ownership to do?

A lot of that whining about spending money is -- has always been -- jealousy. Don't shoot me, folks, I'm not saying everyone wants their team to be the Yankees, but who doesn't want their owners to be free-spending in an all-out pursuit of the Big Prize?

If the Red Sox draw a little of that ire, Sox fans should be proud and enjoy it.

I don't think spending money makes us like the Yankees. What I don't like about the Yankees (and their fans) is the expectation - the entitlement of winning (especially in the post). That is the evil, arrogant and obnoxious Yankee way.

Just because you choose to make a deal at the deadline, doesn't make you like the Yankees. Especially when your team is smart enough to grab a key pitcher, instead of adding another bat to a bloated lineup, and ignore pitching, like the Yanks consistently do--leading to them never winning World Series' any more.